RandomlyEvil.org.uk

Bugger. It’s coming now to the end of my holidays. A week never feels like enough towards the end, when the prospect of work looms on the horizon. To those who follow my Twitter stream (@bryns), you’ll know most of this already, but for those who don’t, here’s a recap…

Andy’s Stag Weekend

Some months ago, I said “yes” to a friend’s invitation to be his best man, and the wedding is edging closer and closer. In accordance with the prophesy, the best man has to organise the stag night. For a whole list of reasons I won’t go into, the venue for the weekend was Aberystwyth (where most of us had met at Undergrads).

I don’t know how many of you have been there (I imagine that most people who read this are either painfully aware of the place, or have heard me blether on about it in the past), but there is *very* little do to in Aberystwyth other than drink (even during term time). In any case, the groom insisted on Aberystwyth, and that we play paintball. Paintballing is quite a lot of fun, but it does hurt when you’re hit (even at long range). I can’t say I suffered any significant injuries, but one amongst us did suffer a direct impact to a… well, “tender” location…

It was an enjoyable weekend, and now the wedding is fast approaching. I shall have to finish my speech, and make sure there’s at least one joke in it (at this point, I’d be willing to settle for a bad joke).

Eisteddfod

The holidays also brought a chance to attend the National Eisteddfod in Blaenau Gwent. I’ve not yet happened upon the perfect Eisteddfod formula. One school of thought suggests attending everything for the full week, whilst others go for a few days and tour the area for the rest of the time. During last year’s Eisteddfod in Bala, I spent the entire time on the Maes, or at Gigs. This year, I opted for a few days on the Maes, along with day trips to other locations. One definite conclusion I’ve reached is that it pays to stay closer to the Maes, as you miss the evening gigs by staying so far away.

In any case, we had an opportunity to escape to St David’s, and enjoy a chance to see a bit more of the country. A pleasant change from all the hotels, airports and motorways, and a chance to enjoy a moment or two of absolute silence whilst staring out to sea.

It’s flat out for the next few weeks, with two weeks in Leeds (oh the glamour!), 3-4 days down in Southampton, and maybe a night or two at home! (Only if I behave…).

Bye for now.

I write this, not from the plush surroundings of my new lounge, but rather from the unfamiliar surroundings of the Hotel Ryalls in Blantyre (in Malawi, for the geographically; and perhaps Google-ly, challenged amongst you). That said, looking around, you would be hard pressed to work out what country you’re in. The only thing that would give it away is the rather curious cuisine, and the maps of Africa on the walls.

So I guess I ought to try and satisfy those of you who don’t read my myriad exploits on Twitter (@bryns), and bring you all up to speed on the events in my life. There is little really to say, other than the substantive portions of work on the house are done. The walls are painted; most of the furniture is in place. I’m gradually noticing all the little things you have to do to keep the place in order, and little things (like a scuff mark on the floor) that wouldn’t have bothered me a month or two ago, now *MUST* be dealt with right away.

All in all, it’s been a curious experience, and most of the decisions regarding decorating have happened more through luck than by design. Various people have tried to re-assure me that I shouldn’t worry about making the wrong choices, telling me “everyone makes mistakes with their first house”. I try to point out that such statements aren’t as helpful as they imagine. The idea of spending a day painting a wall, to then find you’ve picked the wrong colour and having to paint over it several times again is a little hard to ignore. The same can be said I think of what you chose to decorate the walls with. You see a nice bit of artwork in the shop, and think “gosh, that’d looks nice in the lounge/hallway/office/bedroom” and spend a fair old bit of money on it, only to get it home and realise it looks ridiculous there. People again assure me “don’t worry, it’ll take time to decorate the place” again seems a little depressing when you end up looking through the place at bare walls.

Enough of this house related nonsense.

As I said, I’m currently visiting the gloriously sunny Republic of Malawi. The route here was a little bit circuitous, having to fly down to Johannesburg first, before catching another flight back north for 2hrs. Blantyre is apparently the 2nd largest city in Malawi, and by all accounts, the financial capital of the country. You wouldn’t guess this of course by seeing the airport, or by driving around. On the way to the hotel, I saw rather bizarre scenes of people selling puppies by the side of the road (something I’ve often regarded as an impulse buy…) and people selling what appeared to be animal hides and clothes.

Malawi makes for my 11th major trip this year (and we’re only half way through), and the 5th country I’ve seen this year. It’s been a hectic few months recently, with a great number of things piling up in all directions. That said, with things falling into place now, the next six months will seemingly be a lot easier. There should be fewer trips, with the work being spread around. That said, there are a few on the horizon that will be quite good fun, and give me a chance to strike off a few countries from the “big list of places I’d like to visit” (I can’t say which yet, as they’re not confirmed).

My travels have meant I’ve been spending a lot of time doing very little (waiting for planes, in taxis on the way to the airport, being sat on planes etc), and the one piece of technology that’s kept me even slightly close to sane has been my iPod. I’ve been increasingly dependent on it lately for keeping up to date on my media and for something familiar to listen to when I’m stuck trying not to listen to a conversation at the airport where I have no idea what language is being spoken. As a consequence, I’ve been curious as to why there are no decent daily tech podcasts made in the UK. The Americans seem to have the market all to themselves with offerings like Buzz Out Loud and Tech News Today, whilst the UK seemingly manages with the (rather excellent, if unimaginatively named) Tech Weekly by the Guardian, and the CNET UK Podcast – both of which are weekly podcasts. Would there not be a market for such a podcast? Wouldn’t there be an advertiser who’d want to reach out to this particular market segment? I suppose it’s the same thing as to why there isn’t anything like the Daily Show in the UK, as we’d probably only end up with something like The One Show, only with cruder language. It’s a programme format We’re just not up to…

The summer promises a few more trips, a wedding or two (and the associated stag nights), as well as the Eiteddfod. This year is certainly an eventful one…

Until next time.

B

Having said that, the blog does at least give me a chance to excercise that part of my brain with responsilbitiy for (not particularly) creative writing, and stoping it atrophy (something which I feel is happening to me of late). So I guess putting a bit more effort into it won’t do any harm.

Oh, for those who follow by RSS, I should probably tell you that you can now follow a particular post language, rather than have to scroll past one to reach the other. There’s a link to the Welsh feed, and a link to the English feed. If you want to follow the feed for the whole site in a particular language (including the photos I cross-post from my Flickr page), then knock off the “author=1″ from the end of the feed address.

Bye for now.

B